Along with the necessity of the integration with IT environment or the trend toward more and more functions, multifunction peripherals (MFPs) installed at offices, for example, have been required to work in cooperation with external services as required in PCs and servers. However, since MFPs are so-called built-in type equipment with available functions built therein beforehand, they tend to be fundamentally restricted in their functions as compared with PCs and servers. Furthermore, it is difficult to decide beforehand what functions are to be incorporated in a MFP or how the MFP should work in cooperation with external services such as Web services. In other words, such a decision significantly depends on the environment where the MFP is actually installed. Moreover, it is difficult to judge the efficiency as to how such services diversified under the environment are to be offered. Although it is expected that the integration with the IT environment leads to the effective management of MFPs in a similar manner to conventional IT resources such as a server, it will be difficult to realize the virtualization as already provided in a storage area, for example, because of the complexity of services provided by the MFPs.
Even in conventional MFPs, there is a method (solution) in which a certain function is implemented in a disabled state beforehand as an option, and then such a function is enabled by some kind of mechanism. There is another solution using Java platform that allows Java applications externally created to be added on demand. However, there has been no exactly optimal solution provided for achieving on-demand functions with consideration given to the utilization of Web services in the future.
As a solution closer to the effective virtual cooperation of MFPs, some software products working in cooperation with certain types of printers are available, which enable the data subjected to print processing once to be stored in a server different from the printer and to be output again insofar as they are in the same model. These software products, however, are for merely adjusting the data subjected to the processing, and does not have a function allowing the devices to share the processing in cooperation with each other. It is also impossible for the devices to share the data halfway through the processing.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2006-319974 describes to select an optimal server for rendering data printable with a printer. The method of this patent publication, however, is for selecting an optimal server (execution CPU) depending on the loading status or the like, so to speak, applies the existing concept of grid-computing directly to the rendering, and does not disclose the technology for providing an optimal service in response to various requests in MFPs.